Watching the Sunset Disappear
by Midgardian's Enchantment
Summary: This is a SongFic set to Luke Bryan's "Drink a Beer". No one lives forever, and the people that get left behind have to try to figure out why it was the way it was. Spoilers for the Avengers and all three Ironman Movies. Tissue Warnings apply, MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH, and potty mouth near the end.


**Watching the Sunset Disappear**

**Summary: This is a SongFic set to Luke Bryan's "Drink a Beer". No one lives forever, and the people that get left behind have to try to figure out why it was the way it was. Spoilers for the Avengers and all three Ironman Movies. Tissue Warnings apply, MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH, and potty mouth near the end. **

**Author's Note: I don't own the Avenger's or the Iron Man Movies – pretty sure Marvel's got them locked up tight on that. I also don't own Luke Bryan or "Drink a Beer" but the song has a profoundly deep meaning for me and mine. I am really sorry for this.**

_When I got the news today  
I didn't know what to say.  
So I just hung up the phone._

It would be more accurate to say that while trying to hang up the phone, he dropped it and it shattered into a million pieces. StarkTech at its finest doesn't stand up to well to the concrete flooring from 30,000 feet. He could hardly hear himself think – his mind was short circuiting – nothing but the roar of GONE, GONE, GONE repeating over and over threatening to drown him. How could his best friend – one of his only friends – in the entire world just suddenly be gone? The person that had been on the other end of the line had mentioned something about a fault in the suit? The suit that _he_ built? Jesus! He knew that thing was going to be the death of him. Hell, it was probably going to be the death of himself as well – better to go out in a blaze of glory than wait for the slow creeping death. Dear God, was this why he'd called him a few days – or was it weeks now – ago? Did he know something was about to go down? Christ, he just blew him off. Like he usually did these days because they were both so busy with their own different lives now. Did he inadvertently kill his best friend? He had to get out of here! He needed to land quickly because he was definitely too unsteady to fly right now.

_I took a walk to clear my head,  
This is where the walking led  
Can't believe you're really gone  
Don't feel like going home_

He didn't know how long he'd been walking around in the Armor – and he wasn't paying any attention to the strange looks (or the looks of concern and _pity_) being directed his way. He was lost and he knew it. He knew it after Afghanistan, when they'd first been looking at the suits together and all he could think about was what it would be like to be up there in the sky with his best friend watching his six. It wasn't until he was dying and knew he needed a replacement pilot he could trust once it all went down that Rhodey really got his suit – but it didn't matter because that was how Stark planned it. They finally got to fly together. They finally got to kick bad guy ass together. And now look at where they are now. One of them is on the verge of a serious mental breakdown – the other… well the other is flying with the angels neither one of them were really big on believing in as kids. Somehow he managed to make it to the pier where they used to always go and watch the sunsets, toss back a couple of brews, and contemplate where their lives were going to lead them. This was all back before Howard died, and Obadiah, and Afghanistan, the Palladian, the _Avengers_, the Mandarin, all of it. This was their spot. Well, his spot now he guessed.

_So I'm gonna sit right here  
On the edge of this pier  
Watch the sunset disappear  
And drink a beer_

To be honest, he didn't remember stopping to get the beer, but it was there by his hand when he finally made his way to the very edge of the dock like they used too. They'd used to argue over domestic vs. imported… after all when you've got all the money in the world, why not spend it on quality booze? He cracked open the top of a cold one and could feel the first tears start to finally slide down his face when he realized he'd picked up _his_ favorite. There were too many memories at the edge of this pier and for a moment, he was content to let them roll up and over him like the drowning waves roiling below. It looked like a storm was brewing – let it come. It would be no match for the storm that was raging on the inside – DID HE KILL HIS BEST FRIEND WHEN HE BLEW HIM OFF? They'd been through so much together, and this, this one time he'd needed him, he hadn't been there. And for what? WHAT?

_Funny how the good ones go  
Too soon, but the good Lord knows  
The reasons why, I guess_

"Colonel James Rhodes…" Director Nickolas J. Fury gave a dramatic pause while the man on the edge of the pier stiffened and turned to look as a tall black man with a leather fetish and eye patch kept speaking, "He was a great man. He saved hundreds if not thousands of lives on his way out of this life. You should be proud of him for that." And didn't that just BURN.

"And he saved millions of lives before that, but seeing as those didn't directly lead to his death, they don't matter?" he snarled the question to the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. because really? "And I thought it was a fault in the suit that led to his death not some heroic sacrifice bullshit". At this point in time he's glaring at Director Fury, challenging him to tell him different – because if he'd ONLY BEEN THERE (HE SHOULD HAVE FUCKING BEEN THERE) he could have prevented it. Fury looked ready to speak again, but was cut off. "And, I'll always be proud of him. Because I knew where he came from, what he had to rise above to get where he got… he didn't just ride the coat tails like everyone assumed, ya know." He paused. "Truth is, you never knew Jack about him."

_Sometimes the greater plan  
Is kinda hard to understand  
Right now it don't make sense  
I can't make it all make sense_

It still doesn't make since to them how one routine mission could go so horribly wrong so terrifyingly fast. The man on the edge of the pier becomes aware that the rest of the Avengers are gathered behind Fury standing back a little ways to let him wallow in his own grief and misery. For a moment he wonders how they found him… and then remembers, they probably picked him up on satellite, traced that damning phone call, or just plain asked J.A.R.V.I.S. He starts to get a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach – like he knows where this is going to wind up heading and he knows that he won't – that he can't, he just fucking CAN'T do that to his memory. So he pops the top on another beer and waits for the next move. Because with Fury, there is always another fucking next move – and you don't _have_ to be a genius to see it.

_So I'm gonna sit right here  
On the edge of this pier  
Watch the sunset disappear  
And drink a beer_

"The fault in the suit was that it became too severely damaged to continue fighting and stopped responding to all commands – except for one," the great Captain America slowly started. Why they chose him to deliver _this _kind of bull shit news – the guy didn't even like HIM! Didn't approve of the life choices he'd made or whatever it was that had put those two at odds. But he knew. He knew all about the other man's issues – long before the Avengers were in the picture, Hell, long before even Pepper. "You see, Sir", the man in the Armor before him hunched over just a little bit further, but the Captain continued. "You see, the only command he could get to register in the suit's system was the self-destruct. He called clear-out and flew head on into the central mass of the attacking horde – effectively eliminating the threat. He saved a lot of civilians with that move – but he save the lot of us as well." Well, la de da, that was more than what he thought he'd ever hear on how he'd died.

"So he really did take the damned hero's way out?" he questioned. His voice was rough and it wavered.

"Aye, it was a most noble sacrifice, and he'll be sorely missed by all, I assure you," Thor's normally booming voice was quiet and subdued.

"We always knew that this was how things were going to play out," Natasha was cut off by a quick glare from the man still sitting on the edge of the dock. "He'd never leave a team member behind, and he'd never lose one if he could go first. It's why he wasn't considered for the Avengers Initiate in the first place," she gives him a meaningful look. Clint just rolled his shoulders in a shrug meant to convey he agreed with the fiery red-headed assassin.

"Don't blame yourself." Bruce's quiet admonishment had his head snapping up so fast the helmet clanked. "Can see it in your eyes. His were like that too. Don't. Was his choice. Don't cheapen it because it was one you would have rather you were there to make instead." Bruce sighed and turned to go. One by one the other Avengers turned to follow, until the man at the end of the pier was left alone encased in the suit of Armor _he_ fucking built– which was feeling heavier and heavier, now that he knew that it had been the direct cause of his friends death –and Director Fury.

_So long my friend  
Until we meet again  
I'll remember you  
And all the times that we used to..._

The director sighs, knowing that this will not be an easy task to accomplish – but hopes that there is enough spark left in the man of the end of the pier to do so. "Colonel, I'd like to speak to you about the Avengers," is how he starts off.

"No." And that is how it ends. Colonel James Rhodes had just lost his best friend because he was flying for them – and now all that is left of him is the hollow holes burning in the hearts of those that loved him best. Like Rhodey. Happy. _Pepper. _

"Colonel, I don't think you understand – Tony Stark was the Avengers only full-time aerial support. Thor isn't always on Earth, and when he is, he's not readily accessible for combat." Fury was pulling out the big guns, now wasn't he?

"Iron Man: yes, Tony Stark: no. Go fuck yourself Fury. Tony may have self-labeled himself as a Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist, but he forgot the most important label of all." There were only two beers left now. Rhodey took one and tossed the second one to the man currently being a pain in the ass. "He was a Mother-Fucking Hero."

Fury popped the top on the beer and clanked his can against the man he hoped he could still win over. "Well, then, to the Mother-Fucking Heroes."

_... sit right here on the edge of this pier  
And watch the sunset disappear  
And drink a beer  
Drink a beer,  
Drink a beer.  
Yeah_

The next time the Avengers were called out, there was no Iron Man or Iron Patriot flying with them – and people noticed. Mainly because between Bruce and Rhodes - who hello, went to MIT _with_ Tony - was able to revert the color schematics back and reinstall J.A.R.V.I.S. The bad guys of the hour learned a hard lesson that day – War Machine did take orders pretty well, but he didn't fuck around. He was there to protect this little family that his best friend had made for himself – and then died to protect. Tony Stark may be gone but his legacy would live on in lives that he touched and/or saved. The press had a field day with his head stone:

**Anthony Edward Stark**

**April 4, 1965 – April 9, 2014**

**The One and Only Iron Man**

**Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist**

**A Mother-Fucking Hero**


End file.
